Farewell
by your-biohazardous-friend
Summary: Ahsoka froze. Something in her snapped - it was like spiritual tendon rupture.


**Disclaimer:** Star wars franchise belongs to many people and companies from Gorge Lucas to Disney, however I'm not among them.

* * *

 **Farewell**

 _By your-biohazardous-friend_

" _Give me all your love now_

 _'Cause for all we know_

 _We might be dead by tomorrow"_

/SOKO – we might be dead tomorrow/

On her left Kanan was practically dancing with his lightsaber. His feet tapped in the rhythm that only Jedi knew how to name. he was graceful in his movements, just as human males could get. His apprentice did his best to keep up. In contrary to his teacher, the teenager wasn't using traditional fencing techniques - his movements were shaped by the war, created out of necessity – they were a cancer growth on the Jedi culture. But as long as Ezra's stances, jabs and swings were effective no-one had reasons to complain.

The master and padawan's blue blades were swirling, hypnotizing like snakes luring their pray and just as deadly.

The battle was useless, Ahsoka came to realize, and just as pointless as the clone wars were in the past – petty, artificial squabbles that destroyed countless of lives, including her own. This fight was the battle of Christophsis, it was Teth… it was every single campaign she took part in as a teenager.

She froze mid swing. Something in her snapped - it was like spiritual tendon rupture. A mortal pain followed - a random stormtrooper had a lucky shot. Her sudden stillness made her an easy target - the man that fired the blaster would surely get a promotion for such a marvelous achievement – even if it was just a leg, it was still a limb of a Jedi that he shot.

Ahsoka swallowed her fears and pain. She needed to locate the source of her sudden anguish… her friend… no, her brother!

He was shot. He was dying. He needed help.

Ahsoka clenched her teeth and was gasping every time she moved her wounded leg. She couldn't walk, she had to crawl amongst the corpses, using already fallen troopers as a cover.

Eventually, she spotted Rex's frame curled up in a ball, like an armadillo she once saw at the Coruscant's ZOO where her master took her, and several clone troopers from Torrent Company, for a field trip. That day off-duty was an unusual form of a lost bet turned reward for bravery and the best field trip she, and many of the clones, ever had; full of cotton candy, ice cream and fizzy drinks all of which were in Skyguy's expense.

Rex was wheezing, shivering from cold and clutching his trusty blaster to his chest.

"It's all right, Rex. I'm here…" Ahsoka tried to coax her friend; her slender hands stroked his bald scalp "just let me…"

The Jedi knight had to pry the gun away from the ex-captain's grasp. Ahsoka swore under her breath at the sigh of the damage. Kanan was right; stormtrooper armor was useless. The breastplate was still hot and blazing bright orange around the hole where Rex was shot.

The molten plastoid was still seeping into the breach, most likely adding up to the damage already done. Ahsoka almost burnt her fingers when she tried to inspect the extension of the shot. She reached to the Force, just as Barris showed her once, to, at least, feel the severity of his injury.

As if sensing her distress, Rex grabbed her hand. There was fear in his strangely youthful eyes. Ahsoka finally understood what master Plo had in mind when he said that clones were like children to him. She cradled her friend in her arms, rocking him back and forth like a newborn woken up by a nightmare.

"You must go, where I cannot-" she could feel the fallen clone nodding, his lips curled into the small, painful smile.

She felt him dying, not only within the Force, but also by how his always-tensed muscles began to relax.

"Say 'hello' to the rest of the team for me, will you?" Ahsoka whispered to his ear.

He opened his mouth to speak, but only heaving escaped his lips.

"I know, Rex…" She answered, burying her head in the crook of his neck.

His last, warm breath tickled her lekku. Then… there was nothing.

"I love you too" she finished.


End file.
